School staff contain student-led protest in Shelburne

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Students’ right to freedom of expression clashed with the school board’s responsibility to ensure their safety in Shelburne this week.
After learning extracurricular activities, and perhaps even their graduation at the end of the year, were going to be cancelled, Grade 8 students at Hyland Heights Elementary School walked out in protest on Tuesday (Dec. 4).
“They’re listing everything they want back,” said Mikhaila, a Grade 8 student at Hyland Heights. “We’re speaking for all the schools, because not everybody has the guts to do this.”
The group of students was observed carrying homemade signs and chanting around the school’s perimeter, before The Banner was asked to leave the school board’s property.
The contained protest didn’t allow students to step foot off school property, as the principal, who declined to comment on the matter, stood guard.
The students’ desire to voice their displeasure with Bill 115 was brought to light after word spread that the Grade 8 graduation and planned trip to Ottawa at the end of the year were cancelled.
Students’ concerns about the loss of those activities became a possibility when elementary school teachers in the Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) went work-to-rule on Monday.
“We want to have our sports and we want our grad,” added Brittney, another Grade 8 student protesting. “The Grade 8 grad has been cancelled because of it, and the Grade 8s are really upset.”
Maggie McFadzen, spokesperson for the UGDSB confirmed extracurricular activities have been put on hiatus. But McFadzen isn’t aware of the state of the school’s planned events for next semester.
“I don’t know about the trip to Ottawa and the graduation, because those aren’t until the end of the year,” she said. “There has been job action in the schools since Monday that says no extracurricular activities, no volunteer activities by teachers. We haven’t made decisions on the Ottawa trips or the graduation trips.”
Had students notified teachers properly about the protest, as well as the parents of those involved, McFadzen said the public would have been able to better hear what the students wanted to say.
“This was not well co-ordinated by the students,” she said. “We asked them not to leave school property, because they cannot do that without parental permission. They hadn’t informed us that they notified their parents or anything. They hadn’t come to the administration of the school.”
As a result, The Banner was asked to leave the Hyland Heights school grounds, as well as the adjacent property of Centre Dufferin District High School.
“We have the right to do that, to keep you off school property,” McFadzen said. “The students didn’t have permission to invite you there.”
With the potential threat of rotating elementary teachers’ strikes across the province, Brittney sides with the teachers, and hopes the government and unions can reach an agreement. Much like the rest of her graduating class, she would hate to see their year-end celebration ultimately cancelled.
“We’ve been working really hard for eight years trying to graduate,” she said. “We have the one day where we can have our party, we get to dance, we get our big ceremony for our graduation and now it’s cancelled.”